“Why?”
“Because while I may not know if he will succeed, I know that if he is dead he will not have a chance to try. If he dies, our fate is sealed and we all die.
“I’m trying to help you keep him alive so that he can do what he needs to do in order to give us a chance. If you don’t listen to me, he is going to die. That is not a potential, but a hard, cold certainty.
“I know how to read events in the flow of time. I know those things that are only a potential, and I know those that will happen with an absolute certainty. In this particular case, it is not a maybe, or a potential. It is a dead certain event.…
“He is going to die before he has a chance to fulfill his potential unless you do what you need to do to prevent it. Only you can prevent his death. Only you can stop it.
“Now, do you want him to live or not?
“It’s all up to you, Mother Confessor.”
CHAPTER
68
Kahlan stared back into Red’s fierce blue eyes. “All right, I’m listening. What is it you see in the flow of time that is so certain?”
“Nicci is going to kill Richard.”
“Kill him?” Kahlan blinked in disbelief. “Why would she kill Richard? Dear spirits, the woman loves him!”
“That is why she will kill him … because she loves him.”
Kahlan shook her head, as if trying to shake it clear of lunacy.
“You really ought to meet Shota,” Kahlan said. “You’d like her. You both see events in the flow of time and think you understand their true meaning when you don’t. You’re both crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. I would wager that this Shota has given you information that has been vital, as this is. I’m telling you what will happen in the flow of time if that flow is allowed to run its course. I’m trying to make you see what is at stake.”
“I haven’t got time for this nonsense.”
As Kahlan started to leave, Red grabbed her arm and turned her back. “Nicci knows that Richard’s heart belongs to you. She loves him, but she cannot have him. The flow of time says that because of that, she will kill him.”
Kahlan pressed her hands to the sides of her head, exasperated with the pointless, circular conversation, wishing she could shut it out. “You said yourself that this flow of time you look into only holds potential, not certainty.”
Red shook her head emphatically. “No, that is not what I said. I said that because he is the pebble in the pond, Richard’s free will muddies my ability to see how the events he is central to will unfold. It is only undefined potential in his case. But I see other things with absolute clarity.”
Kahlan glared, no longer even able to remain polite.
“So you say.”
Red gestured angrily toward Hunter. “I sent him because I saw that you would all come this way and would have been killed back there in the chasms had I not acted. It was important that none of you die back there. I could see in that same flow that you would befriend Hunter, as you call him, and follow him when you most needed his help—but only if I sent him to save you.
“It wasn’t potential; it was a certainty. I saw the different tributaries, branches, and backwaters in the flow of time and I worked to keep you on the course that would save your lives. Here you stand as a result. I would say that shows I understand the meaning of what I see in the flow of time quite well, wouldn’t you?
“While it doesn’t work that way with Richard, it does with the people around him. It worked that way with you. It wasn’t chance or potential, it was only the deliberate choices I made to effect the outcome that kept you all alive.
“Perhaps, as you say, this witch woman, Shota, only thinks she understands the true meaning of the things she sees in the flow of time, but don’t judge me by her inadequacies. I know what I’m talking about, and I know what I’m doing.”
Red leaned closer and pointed a finger at Kahlan’s face. “I’m telling you, Mother Confessor, and you had better listen to me—Nicci is going to kill Richard unless you kill her first.
“Richard is the only chance we all have. He is the only one with the potential to save the world of life. Even the first Confessor, Magda Searus, saw that three thousand years ago and did what she could to help him. Now, you are the last Confessor. It has come full circle. It is up to you to make sure he has that chance to fulfill his potential.
“You must kill Nicci before she can kill Richard.”
Kahlan folded her arms and stared back at the witch woman’s piercing blue eyes with a look of her own. “If you think she needs killing, then why don’t you just kill her yourself?”